System and Method for Ranking Information Based on Clickthroughs

1. A method of displaying information, comprising: retrieving over a network from a plurality of sources, a plurality of summaries of sets of information, the sets of information being stored on a plurality of servers over the network; for each of the summaries in the plurality: identifying a timestamp of when each said summary was retrieved; and storing, associated with said summary, the timestamp; detecting a number of times the sets of information have been viewed; and providing, to a browser for display of a web page, at least a portion of each of at least some of the summaries with a standalone indication responsive to the number of times the sets of information corresponding to each said summary have been viewed relative to the number of times other sets of information, for which the timestamp corresponds to a criteria, have been viewed, wherein the providing comprises providing, for each of the provided summaries, a first link including an identifier of a provided summary and an address of a computer system on the network, wherein the criteria comprises a time period ending with a current time, and wherein the detecting comprises: receiving, at the computer system, the identifier in response to a selection of the first link on the web page; incrementing, in response to the selection of the first link on the web page, a counter corresponding to the identifier, the indication being responsive to the counter and a difference between the timestamp and the current time; and sending, to the browser, a redirect command in response to the selection of the first link, the redirect command comprising an address of a server source of the set of information corresponding to the identifier, wherein the method further comprises selectively providing, to the browser, a second link for retracting a click through of the first link such that a click through of the second link causes the counter to be decremented, detecting the click through of the second link, and decrementing the counter based on the click through of the second link.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least a portion of a plurality of the plurality of summaries are retrieved in an XML format.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the XML format comprises RSS.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the time period is twenty four hours.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the redirect command comprises a URL from which the set of information corresponding to the identifier can be retrieved.

6. The method of claim 1 , additionally comprising: detecting a time zone of a computer system to which the at least the portion of the at least some of the plurality of summaries are provided; and responsive to the time zone detected: adjusting the timestamp for each of the summaries provided to produce an adjusted timestamp; and providing for display with each of said portion of the at least some of the plurality of summaries, one selected from the timestamp and the adjusted timestamp corresponding to said summary.

7. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for displaying information, the computer program product comprising computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer system to: retrieve over a network from a plurality of sources, a plurality of summaries of sets of information, the sets of information being stored on a plurality of servers over the network; for each of the summaries in the plurality: identify a timestamp of when each said summary was retrieved; and store, associated with said summary, the timestamp; detect a number of times the sets of information have been viewed; provide, to a browser for display of a web page, at least a portion of each of at least some of the summaries with a standalone indication responsive to the number of times the sets of information corresponding to each said summary have been viewed relative the number of times other sets of information, for which the timestamp corresponds to a criteria, have been viewed, wherein the criteria comprises a time period ending with a current time; provide, for each of the provided summaries on the web page, a first link including an identifier of a provided summary and a network address of the computer system; receive, at the computer system, the identifier in response to a selection of the first link on the web page; increment, in response to the selection of the first link on the web page, a counter corresponding to the identifier, the indication being responsive to the counter and a difference between the timestamp and the current time; send, to the browser, a redirect command in response to the selection of the first link, the redirect command comprising an address of a server source of the set of information corresponding to the identifier; selectively provide, to the browser, a second link for retracting a click through of the first link such that a click through of the second link causes the counter to be decremented; detect the click through of the second link; and decrement the counter based on the click through of the second link.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the at least a portion of a plurality of the plurality of summaries are retrieved in an XML format.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the XML format comprises RSS.

10. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the time period is twenty four hours.

11. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the redirect command comprises a URL from which the set of information corresponding to the identifier can be retrieved.

12. The computer program product of claim 7 , additionally comprising computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer system to: detect a time zone of a computer system to which the at least the portion of the at least some of the plurality of summaries are provided; and responsive to the time zone detected: adjust the timestamp for each of the summaries provided to produce an adjusted timestamp; and provide for display with each of said portion of the at least some of the plurality of summaries, one selected from the timestamp and the adjusted timestamp corresponding to said summary.

13. A system comprising: a storage device configured to store information comprising a plurality of summaries corresponding to different web pages, counter values corresponding to the web pages, and retrieval times associated with the summaries, the retrieval times respectively comprising timestamps of when each summary was retrieved, wherein the web pages are hosted on a plurality of servers; and one or more computer systems that are communicatively coupled with the storage device and configured to perform operations comprising: providing, to a browser for display, at least a portion of the summaries with respective standalone indications and respective first links for accessing the corresponding web pages, the standalone indications being responsive to the counter values, the retrieval times, and a criteria, each of the standalone indications being responsive to a number of times a web page corresponding one of the summaries has been viewed relative to a number of times other web pages have been viewed, each of the standalone indications being responsive to a difference between a corresponding timestamp of the timestamps and a current time; receiving a notice that a selected first link of the first links is selected via the browser, the selected first link being indicative of a selected web page of the web pages; incrementing, in response to the selected first link, a counter value of the counter values that corresponds to the selected web page; sending, in response to the selected first link, a redirect command to the browser, the redirect command comprising an address of a server hosting the selected web page; and selectively providing, to the browser, a second link for retracting a click through of the selected first link such that a click through of the second link causes the counter value to be decremented; detecting the click through of the second link; and decrementing the counter based on the click through of the second link.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the criteria comprises a time period ending with the current time.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the time period is twenty four hours.